Making constitutional law : Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1961-1991

Making Constitutional Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1961-1991 focuses on the second half of a brilliant and unique career. When tapped by LBJ in 1967 to ascend to the High Court, the seasoned Marshall - as the first African-American Justice - brought desegregation to the bench in word, thought, and deed. But as Mark V. Tushnet illustrates in this book, Marshall, a Great Society liberal, brought many other progressive concepts and convictions.

This book, the first to fully utilize the papers of Justices Marshall and William J. Brennan, describes Marshall's approach to constitutional law in areas ranging from civil rights and the death penalty to abortion and affirmative action. Tushnet, who served as a law clerk for Marshall in the early 197Os, gives ample attention to the Court's operations during Marshall's tenure, the relations among the judges, and the particular roles played by Chief Justice Warren Burger, Justice Brennan, and Justice Antonin Scalia.

Making Constitutional Law aptly locates the Supreme Court of Marshall's tenure within its rich political and historical contexts, showing how the nation's drift toward conservatism affected the Court's debates and decisions, and how Marshall's ardent liberalism became increasingly isolated. Making Constitutional Law will appeal to students of law, history, politics, and recent American culture.

Prologue: "Things That We Knew but Would Rather Forget" --
"The Right Man and the Right Place": From the Second Circuit to the Supreme Court" --
"The Steam Roller Will Have to Grind Me Under": Marshall and the Brethren --
"Assumptions About How People Live": Working on the Supreme Court --
"Unless Our Children Begin to Learn Together": Desegregating the Schools --
"Vital Interests of a Powerless Minority": Equal Protection Theory --
"Now, When a State Acts to Remedy ... Discrimination": Affirmative Action --
"Compassion in Time of Crisis": The Death Penalty --
"We Are Dealing with a Man's Life": Administering the Death Penalty --
"Some Clear Promise of a Better World": The Jurisprudence of Thurgood Marshall --
Epilogue: "He Did What He Could with What He Had."

Resumen:

Following on from 'Making Civil Rights Law', which covered Thurgood Marshall's career from 1936 to 1961, this book focuses on Marshall's career on the Supreme Court from 1961 to 1991, where he was the first Afro-American Justice.Leer más

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... comprehensive and well researched. It is, without question, a valuable contribution to the existing literature on this historic figure. The Journal of American History, Dec 2000